Striking gold: A look at India's growing club of Unicorns

From 2011 to 2017, India had 10 Unicorns, the nomenclature given to private technology companies valued over $1 billion.

ET Bureau|

Updated: Jun 29, 2018, 11.37 AM IST

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The Unicorn club is set to double to about 20 members this year.

Here is a look at the new members of India's Unicorn club.

PolicyBazaarSoftBank’s $150 million investment this month that pitched PolicyBazaar into the Unicorn Club could not have come at a more opportune time for the Gurgaon-headquartered fin-tech company. ETechAces Marketing and Consulting, the parent company of PolicyBazaar, had just announced its entry into the healthcare sector, and a significant portion of the money brought in by the Japanese investor is expected to go towards building the new business. PolicyBazaar, the insurance marketplace, continues to perform strongly, with premiums estimated at Rs 1,800 crore in 2017. ETechAces, which also runs online financial marketplace PaisaBazaar, is preparing for an international expansion as well.

DelhiveryThe ecommerce-focused logistics startup’s proposed initial public offering is one of the most anticipated events in the Indian startup ecosystem. The IPO, expected by the end of this fiscal year, could turn out to be a watershed moment for the broader Indian startup landscape, which holds a poor record of not providing handsome exits to investors. Little wonder that leading merchant banks are queuing up to underwrite its IPO. The company has been able to bring on board marquee investors such as Carlyle Group, which isn’t known for placing technology-focused bets in India. Carlyle led a $100 million funding in Delhivery in March last year.

Pine LabsPine Labs is now a rare digital payment company that is both profitable and a part of the Unicorn Club. Before two back-to-back fundraising rounds adding up to more than $200 million this year, Pine Labs had raised funds once in 2015 from Sofina and way back in 2009 from Sequoia Capital. Today, Pine Labs stands at a unique crossroads, with both challenges and opportunities aplenty. The next big question for the company is: Under the leadership of former Visa and Mastercard executive Vicky Bindra, will Pine Labs be able to break geographical barriers and spread its wings across the Middle East and Southeast Asia?

OYO RoomsTo be recognized as a “next-generation hotel chain” by the world’s biggest technology investor is heady praise indeed. The hospitality chain recently crossed 100,000 rooms in inventory, outstripping some of India’s largest legacy hotels in terms of presence—a benchmark that had SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son waxing eloquent about the Gurgaonbased company. Also, OYO’s entry into China, the world’s most lucrative yet hardest consumer market to crack, has the entire startup ecosystem agog. Up next is the company’s plan to expand to the lucrative Middle East market, beginning with the United Arab Emirates..

SwiggySwiggy, in three years and 10 months since inception, has become one of the fastest domestic internet firms to enter the haloed Unicorn Club, with its business valued at $1.3 billion. That also makes Swiggy the highest-valued private firm in India’s food-technology sector. The firm, which clocked nearly 7 million orders in January, is expected to close June with 14 million orders in India. This growth came as the company optimised its delivery model, reducing its costs by more than 35%. This proved crucial in almost doubling Swiggy’s valuation in about 4 months, a growth many regard as unprecedented.

Byju’sWhat began with a single person touring the country to teach in classrooms and stadiums has now become a billion-dollar company. Within three years of launching its flagship product, Byju’s-The Learning App, the company has 20 million registered students and 1.26 million annual paid subscribers. Byju’s has been growing at 100% annually for the last three years and recently crossed ?100 crore in monthly revenue. It is on course to achieving its revenue target of Rs 1,400 crore this financial year. Byju’s is now looking to expand to US, UK and Australia.

FreshworksFreshworks recently crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, led by its customer support product, Freshdesk, and continued growth in its IT services management software, Freshservice, and CRM software, Freshsales. The company has also expanded its portfolio to include Freshchat, Freshcaller, Freshmarketer, and Freshteam. Clients include Honda, Bridgestone, Hugo Boss, University of Pennsylvania, Toshiba, Cisco and global small and medium businesses.US and Europe form around 40% each of its business. India is its third-largest country Founders - Girish Mathrubootham, CEO; Shan Krishnasamy, CTO

BigBasketBigBasket recently closed a $300 million funding led by Alibaba Group that valued it at $950 million, inching closer to becoming the country’s first e-grocery to gain the coveted Unicorn status. The fact that BigBasket has been able to retain its market leadership has helped it reach its present valuation. Prior to Alibaba coming on board, BigBasket was valued at $450 million when it raised funds from Dubai-based Abraaj Group and other investors in 2016.

Paytm MallPaytm Mall is among the fastest domestic internet companies to gain Unicorn status. The online marketplace was hived off from payments company One97 Communications in mid-2016. The following year, it raised $200 million from Alibaba Group and SAIF Partners at a post-money valuation of $650 million. Then in April this year, it secured another $445 million in financing led by SoftBank with participation from Alibaba. The funding nearly tripled its valuation to $1.9 billion. Paytm Mall’s main differentiator is that it is attempting to create an inventory-free ecommerce model by connecting shopkeepers with the online marketplace.

BilldeskBilldesk is perhaps one of those prominent entities in the payments world consumers have never heard of. The company operated the pipeline that connected billers with banks and preferred to be in the backend. Even with competition getting stronger, Billdesk’s long pipelines and connecting roadways with billers across 33 locations gives it a strong footing. Many new-age startups are, in fact, partnering with Billdesk.

RivigoThe Gurgaon-headquartered logistics company was one of the early beneficiaries of GST, with the removal of intercity check posts. Industry watchers will keep a close eye on the company’s technology efforts, particularly on its shift towards machine-learning and artificial intelligence. Rivigo has also earmarked a good portion of its funding towards further building its network of processing centres and trucking pitstops as it looks to expand its footprint.